Russell Jakubowski

TOYS

21 February - extended till 30 March 2021

Russell lives and works in Surrey near London. He works primarily as a sculptor in wood, metal, stainless steel, and recyclable plastics.

This online exhibition includes his sculptures made from Perspex in 2020-2021, which the artist calls toys. However, they have not much to do with toys, they are rather constructions that, in their complexity, affect interpersonal relationships and systems we are apart of. Russell reflects with them on the changes that have suddenly occurred in the systems as a result of the pandemic. The systems come out of their normal, accustomed course. They seem mobile, but they are not. The meticulously elaborated connections in these constructions reflect precisely these functional systems that we have built with the greatest care and that shall regulate our life. Even if one always wishes to break up these systems, man still needs an order that catches his life at many points and in many areas, and even also enables him or often guarantees his personal freedom of development and movement. These systems have wavered in the pandemic. Russell visualizes this change in his sculptures. He explores these relationships through an analytical investigation of the possibilities of the material from which these works were created, the Perspex - here he can precisely control the material during the artistic process through targeted cuts with a laser, by heating, and modeling.